Senin, 17 Januari 2011

S. aureus vaccine breakthrough?

Researchers at the University of Rochester have just announced a potential breakthrough in S. aureus (MRSA) vaccine methods. Edward Schwarz and John Varrone presented their new findings at the Orthopaedic Research Society annual meeting in Long Beach, Calif this past week.

Their work targets the S. aureus glucosaminidase (Gmd) protein, which is thought to act as a zipper by opening the bacterial cell wall during cell division. Importantly they discovered four anti-Gmd monoclonal antibodies that prevented growth in cell culture. They also demonstrated that mice treated with anti-Gmd antibody were half as likely to develop infection. Phase I human trials are planned for 2012.